Bones of the Past (Arhel) (39 page)

“What will you do?”

“I don’t know yet. I’ll find something.”

Faia gave Medwind a wistful smile. “Will I see you again?”

Medwind shrugged. “Someday, perhaps. If not in this world, then maybe in the next.”

Kirgen joined them, and asked Faia, “Are you ready? I need to start transporting the Wen kids’ food—so we need to be going soon.”

Faia nodded. “Gentle winds, warm hearth and dry roof wherever you travel, then, Medwind.”

“Happiness, Faia. Happiness, Kirthchie.”

Kirgen, Faia, and Kirtha vanished from the ruins in a cloud of smoke that the day’s gentle breeze quickly dispersed. Medwind watched the last wisps and tatters vanish. Then she turned away.

The future waited, wide open, uncertain, full of promise. And for the first time in her life, she was free to walk toward it.

(Including Several Words
Your Mother Won’t Approve Of)

Baofar
(Arissonese) Name for any member of the class of trees made up of multiple ramets, or individual trunks, connected by a complex underground network of roots. The entire organism is referred to as a genet. The majority of Arhel’s baofars produce both an edible fruit and a short, round seed-pod from which long, trailing silklike threads depend at maturity. The individual ramets are usually small, but the genets can grow quite large. Of course, there are always exceptions.

Braxille
Largest city in the Fisher Province of Arhel. Built mostly underground. Subject to severe cold and months of darkness at mid-winter. Has the reputation, possibly deserved, of being the most miserable “civilized” spot in Arhel.

D’leffja
(Huong Hoos) (n. pejorative) A goat-molester. The verb is “d’leffik.”

Dludergaad
(Huong Hoos) 1. A member of the Dludergaadar, the association of Huong Hoos thieves. 2. A term of admiration bestowed upon successful goat-thieves or horse thieves in a Huong Hoos tribe.

Dooru
(Wen) Any of four varieties of large, saurid flying predators that still inhabit the area above the Wen Tribes Treaty Line. Below the Treaty Line, such beasts have been extinct at least since the Second Purges.

Drum-Tongue
(Wen) Version of Sropt that can be “spoken” by playing a tuned drum. The method long-distance communication used by the Wen Tribes.

Easho
(Huong Hoos) Unit of measure equal to the length of the thighbone of a tall man. Not standardized.

Entreg
(Arissonese) Fifteenth letter of the Arissonese alphabet. Sound is “nt.”

Etyt
(Huong Hoos) God of war. Consort of Thiena.

Evastevoffuschrom
(Wen) Literal translation is “smoke-monster-sleep”; a hypnotic agent released into the air by burning the ground seed pods of the split-leaved baofar.

Fanghare
(Arissonese) Small, predatory ground marsupial common to the desert of the Fey Plateau. Has very large ears. Is nocturnal, a mammal, and four-limbed.

Farsight
(Arissonese) Term used to describe the magical arts of future prediction or prediction of concurrent events in far-off places. Little discrimination is used in separating the two meanings.

Fern-madness
(Wen) A form of insanity brought on by ingestion of fronds of the rare white fern. Intensity of the madness varies with dose, and sufficiently large doses can cause death.

Fnaffigchekta
(Wen) Sropt—literally “drum-trade.”

Fnaffigglotim
(Wen) Sropt—literally “drum-speaking.”

Genets
see
Baofar.

Gornat Wilds
(Fisher) Village near Big Tam. Very small and primitive.

Gram
(Arissonese) Esp. saje. One of the Seven Ugly Gods thought to inhabit the lowest and most horrible of the saje hells. The others are Makog, Dramfing, Shelfud, Torling, Keknok, and Wilmer, The God Whose Name Is Not Spoken.

Hai
(Hraddo) Pronounced hay’-eye. The word of common greeting in Hraddo, the Trade Tongue, which bears overtones of both “stay and talk a while” and “I mean no harm”—it has made its way into common speech in other languages in Arhel.

Hekpeknu
(Wen) Sropt—literally “woman-thing-that-looks-like-people.”

Hout-Cadhay Quarter
The cheap-rent quarter in one of the outer circles of Ariss, home of whores and thieves and poor scholars and equally poor writers and far too many mediocre musicians.

Hraddo
The official trade tongue of polyglot Arhel. An extremely limited artificial language made up only of those sounds pronounceable by all the peoples of Arhel, uninflected, lacking all articles and pronouns, and with a grammar that changes tense by tacking the word “yesterday” or “tomorrow” onto the end of the sentence. Even so, fifty-seven of the roughly one thousand words of Hraddo are profane, and wars have been fought over misunderstandings the language has caused.

Hrogner
(Arissonese) Esp. saje. Chief Saje god of Mischief. Also the name of Faia’s handed cat.

Hrun
(Huong Hoos) Extremely pejorative. The verb is hrunik, the noun hrunja. The base word refers to the act of kakophagery. The subject is one of the few taboos in the Hoos culture, which views all thirteen of its official sexual orientations as completely normal and considers religion a weird but unavoidable obligation.

Imitation-Proageff artwork
Arissers have an appalling admiration of the artworks of Shumt Proageff, a Ralledine artist who lived during the House Five Renaissance. Proageff’s subjects during his entire prolific career were the same five women, who, from the record his paintings left, appear never to have owned or worn a stitch of clothing in their lives. But while Proageff was prolific, demand for his works far outstrips supply. Thus, there is a brisk market for cheap reproductions of his more famous works—especially the ones that also include the horses.

Keaddaba
(Huong Hoos) 1. Large or sturdy bones. Rare usage. 2. Unmitigated arrogance, gall, insolence, chutzpa, or nerve. Definitely the more common usage.

Keyu
(Wen) Sropt—1. God. 2. Tree.

Keyunu
(Wen) Sropt—Literally “tree/god-people.”

Kranjakken
(Huong Hoos) Exclamatory (Warning—literal meaning pejorative in most languages or cultures.) One of one hundred sixty-nine specific Hoos words relating to the physical act of human copulation.

Kyadda
(Huong Hoos) A sort of useful linguistic noise, the specific meaning of which is difficult to pin down. Can mean “yes,” “thanks,” “everyone is still breathing,” “everything will be all right,” or even “this isn’t perfect, but it will certainly serve for the time being.” Has spread from Huong Hoos to other languages which lacked such a broad verbal burp, and retained its same meaning—or lack thereof.

Peknu
(Wen) Sropt—Literally “things-that-look-like-people.”

Prembullin Sajerie
(Arissonese) More progressive of the two saje schools of thought. Following the Second Mage/Saje War, the Prembullin Sajerie opened the doors of Faulea University to women, in positions both as scholars and as instructors, and permitted the sajes within its membership to enter public bonds with women. Slightly the larger of the two schools of thought, and with fractionally more power at the time of this writing.

Prodictan Era
(Arissonese) Period of severe censorship between the First and Second Purges, when all historical records were subject to extreme revisionism by whichever fanatics were in power at the time. The result is that all historical records written during the Prodictan Era are subject to wild inaccuracy. Unfortunately, because the First Purges destroyed all available historical records, and the Second Purges destroyed all records that didn’t suit the tastes of the parties in power, Prodictan History is the best available for many time periods.

Puffing-krull
(Wen) Small green six-limbed jungle saurid that has bright red bladders behind each of its legs. When posturing to attract mates, it inflates each of these bladders to such huge proportions that it can then only waddle with difficulty until the bladders deflate. Male puffing-krulls tend to congregate on fallen logs and large rocks during the mating season, where they are entertaining to watch.

Ramet
See Baofar.

Raouda
(Wen) 1. Small, pulpy succulent with attractive flowers that grows as a parasite on rain forest trees. 2. Deadly neurotoxin made from the pressed leaves of that plant.

Schkavak
(Huong Hoos) Pejorative. 1. Thief, specifically, a thief who is not a member of the Hoos association of thieves, the Dludergaadar. 2. Any thief who steals from oneself.

Sharsha
(Wen) Sropt—Literally “a sacrifice.”

Sheshrud
(Huong Hoos) 1. The small slimy soft-bodied white grub that feeds on the dung of large mammals throughout Arhel. 2. Pejorative term for an outlander.

Skeruekkeu
(Wen) Pejorative verb. Biologically impossible. Skeru are little smelly insects.

Stekkonks
(Huong Hoos) Another specific pejorative phrase of extreme (and unfortunately unprintable) rudeness.

Tagnu
(Wen) Sropt—Literally “not-people.”

Temrish
(Arissonese) Archaic. Term for a form of contractual bondage, the specifics of which are no longer known. Term originates from at least the Prodictan Era, and probably before.

Tethjan Sajerie
(Arissonese) The reactionary “old guard” school of thought in Faulea University. Still proscribes any meaningful contact with women, still abhors the presence of women on the Faulea campus, and refuses to recognize the contributions of women in general or the Magerie in specific to the practice of magic.

Thiena
(Huong Hoos) Goddess of war. Consort of Etyt.

Transport
(Arissonese) Proprietary saje form of magical transportation. No saje may reveal the art of teleport to anyone not a saje and a sworn member of either Prembullin or Tethjan Sajeries. No saje may reveal the art of teleport to any mage especially. Even after the opening of the Mage and Saje Universities to members of the opposite genders, this rule remains firm.

Tree-Naming
(Wen) The ceremony that serves to mark the coming of age of Wen children of both sexes. Generally occurs between the ages of ten and twelve, and always near the onset of puberty.

After reading this story, you might come to the conclusion that I don’t like trees.

In truth, I like most of them a lot. In fact, some of my fondest memories are of curling up high in the branches of tall trees, looking out over the world, enjoying the silence and the wind and rustling of leaves and branches, far from younger brother and sister, cousins, and other people who did not have my finely-honed appreciation for not being pestered, teased, annoyed, and bothered.

Ohio has some fine and lovely trees, and I spent a great deal of time admiring and hanging out with them from the time I was about six until the time I was eighteen.

But I did have one disruptive interlude in my lifelong friendship with trees. We lived for a while in Costa Rica, and for a while in Guatemala when I was between thirteen and fifteen, and I discovered there are trees in the world you don’t climb because they’re harbors for poisonous spiders and snakes and frogs, and trees you don’t wander around beneath because they’re so huge and close together they block out the sun, hide trails and paths, make everything start looking the same…and if you wander into the jungle, which is where trees gang up on you, outnumber you, and bully you, you can get turned around and lost very quickly. Worse yet, hungry buggers live in the jungle that will happily eat you for lunch, should you be small, tasty, unarmed, slow, and dumb enough to put yourself within their reach. Big cats. Big ants. Big snakes.

My darkest memory of trees was in Belize, when we were visiting another American family, and they decided to take us for a walk in their “back yard.”

I laugh. Darkly.

The roots of the massive trees rose up out of the ground in knobs and twists, the trees themselves were wide as houses and jammed together like Manhattan skyscrapers, and the still air beneath them smelled like decay, and sounded like a predator hunting. When I looked at the vertical cracks in their trunks, their folded bark, the vines that draped down from them like fat boa constrictors, they felt alive, watchful, hungry. Vertical mouths, I thought, trudging after my parents and their friend. Big enough to eat me and a dozen more like me.

And then we got out into the sunlight and back to what passed for civilization in 1975 in the unoccupied spaces of Central America, and the people-eating trees dropped from my conscious mind. I was fourteen or fifteen at the time, and resilient, and like most kids, at that point still figured I was immortal.

My subconscious mind squirreled that moment of sheer animal terror away, though, and during the writing of this book, brought it back to me in the form of vivid nightmares. Inescapable nightmares.